Wow, I haven't written about the birds in a while. They both need checkups soon. Soon.

Sid has gotten more adventurous about coming out of his cage. We usually leave his door open all day while we're home and let him wander out onto this little platform foyer =) Sometimes, we'll find him napping on top of his cage. Once, I found him on the floor by himself chewing on a pile of old newspaper. Oops. Recently, he's been actually walking up onto a flattened out hand but only if he's disoriented and confused. He gets adventurous, flies out of his cage into another room and then gets lost and scared. That's the best time to pick him up, sing and chat with him a little to build rapport. He is quite easily distracted with chatting and singing.

My Mother-in-Law found Grandma Jing-Tsun's old birdie play gym tree thing and assembled it. It's 14" tall and has dowel branches sticking out of it, a little ladder and a swing.

The first time the two saw it, they were freaked out. It was too funny. Sid won't stay on it. We couldn't get Skippy near it either. Her wings haven't been clipped in so long that she's fully flighted again. She flew away as soon as I brought her within two feet of the tree. I tricked her into standing closer to it by getting her to play with her water cup and then putting the water cup down on the floor next to the tree. Slowly, while her head was down, I'd shuffle the cup closer and closer. You could tell she knew something was fishy, but she couldn't quite figure out what, so she goes back to playing with her water.

One day, she was flying around and bashed herself against the wall or something. The silly little git lost about six height feathers on one side. None of them were bloody, so they were supposed to come out anyway. But that meant she was lopsided and unable to fly much for a day or two until she adjusted to having to flap faster on one side to fly straight.

The evil that is Me took advantage of that situation >=}

I put her on one of the top branches with one sweeping motion, too quickly for her to react. She sat there scared and frozen stiff. XD She didn't know what to do, she didn't want to play with anything, she didn't want to explore anything, she just sat there. And she'd try to get off it any way she thought she could without flying. As soon as someone went over, she would look at them like she was pleading for them to get her off the freaky thing. We were just laughing our asses off.

I brought the tree over to the table where I usually sit now and I'd let her just sit there in solitary confinement while I did stuff on my laptop. Mother-In-Law Woman would laugh that she was being punished.

We put seeds on the tray at the bottom and some on a flat spot at the top. Skippy seems to have gotten used to it a little. She's started walking up the wooden dowel steps.

There's a little swing on it too. Of course, she wouldn't get onto it herself, but Husband Guy put her on it. As soon as she stepped onto it, she lurched forward. As soon as she lurched forward, she had to compensate by leaning back. And what happens when you lurch forward, then overcompensate backward on a swing? Come on, it hasn't been THAT long since you've been an expert at Kid Physics, has it?! You build momentum and swing higher and/or faster. XD XD XD

BWAHAHA!! =D Oh, poor chickie, we were laughing at her so hard. I think we'll have to hold onto the swing for her and not let it swing too much when she's on it. But she's been ferociously averse to getting back on the swing.

We're also trying to move them to a pellet diet. Sometimes, birds don't recognize pellets as food and won't eat it. It can be a really long and involved process to get them to shift to a pellet diet without dying of starvation. Many birds can't completely make the switch, they have to be on a combination of seeds and pellets at the very most.

We're usually up at around 0730h on the weekdays, so that's when their food and water gets changed. Then some time during the day, we just blow the husks off the top so they can see the rest of the seeds and be able to continue eating. On weekends, we sleep in, so they usually get fooded and watered a little later.

On Sunday, we were late in almost a major way. Oooops. So, when we gave them pellets, they were both so hungry that they just went right at it without batting an eye. Holy crap! They just faceplanted and started munching with conviction. XD

We tried to give them just pellets during the day, then give them seeds in the early evening. I don't think they ate much all day. =P We'll have to watch them and make sure they don't lose too much weight. =P

Yes, they're supposed to be better suited to a domestic bird's lifestyle. They do eat only seeds in the wild, but they're much much more actively flying around hunting for food, getting away from predators, etc. and they need the fat and energy that seeds give them. So, because they're not nearly that active as domestic pets, an all-seed diet is like eating fries and ice cream for every meal of your life.